Women injured by vaginal mesh to speak at Oireachtas health committee

The specialised scanners which can detect can see mesh and mesh remnants are in place in both Cork University Maternity Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital. Picture: Larry Cummins.

Questions will be raised about access to vital diagnostic machines, for woman affected by deteriorating vaginal mesh, during the Oireachtas health committee today.

Patient groups representing women from Ireland and Northern Ireland will address the session, and are expected to say they still have no access to specialised scanners.

The scanners have been in place since last year at Cork University Maternity Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital.

Mesh Survivors Ireland representative Terri Waters is expected to ask when the translabial scanners will be used.

“These vital diagnostic machines came at great public cost and would be a shame to leave them go unused,” she is expected to say.

She will describe them as a “wonderful non-invasive investigatory tool”.

These scanners can see mesh and mesh remnants unlike conventional scanners which are not sensitive enough.

She will say the women feel like guinea pigs as various interventions are tried, and they will call for an update on a report by the chief medical officer in 2018.

The group's members are grateful for the two mesh centres, along with pathways to care.

However, as there are just two centres, the group will call for financial assistance for those travelling from other parts of the country to Cork or Dublin. Many are still in severe pain years after their operations.

They will call for medical cards for to all women from recognised mesh-injured pathway and an official apology.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

She will ask for: “accountability and an apology for mesh injury from our Health Service Executive and the Department of Health as there were many warning of the safety of these products from the Food and Drug Administration Authority.” 

The group will state: “Although they (mesh products) came in through Europe’s decentralisation system, they still ended up implanted in our bodies in our national public hospitals run and funded by HSE and Department of Health.” 

Additionally it will call for patients to be included on the Steering Committee on Mesh Injury so personal insights on the “horrific” impacts can be heard.

Compassionate engagement was agreed upon in 2018 but has not yet happened, the committee will hear.

“Dr Gabriel Scally’s review into the other women’s health scandal of Cervical Check had a lot of identical issues raised and its findings resonates so closely with mesh injured ladies and this constant battle for justice,” Ms Waters will say.

Surgical mesh is inserted to treat pelvic organ prolapse as well as urinary incontinence, and is a permanent implant. However devices have caused organ and spinal chord damage and torn tissue.